The President’s Chief of Staff Apologizes to “F-ing Retards”

May 19, 2011

RUSH: Folks, there is so much apologizing going on from members of this administration, it’s just amazing. First place, there’s Rahm Emanuel out there who is in big trouble for calling liberals, for calling liberal activists F-ing retards. Sarah Palin demanded that he be fired. Instead, he is apologizing to liberal activists. He was getting mad at them about health care. The liberal activists kept blaming the White House for all this health care debacle not happening and not getting done. Emanuel’s getting ticked off out there saying, (paraphrasing) ‘What are you blaming us for? We didn’t do anything about it, you F-ing retards.’ I think the big news is the crack-up going on. But our politically correct society is acting like some giant insult’s taken place by calling a bunch of people who are ‘retards,’ ‘retards.’ I mean these people, these liberal activists are kooks. They are Looney Tunes. I’m not going to apologize for it. I’m just quoting Emanuel. It’s in the news. I think the big news is that he’s out there calling Obama’s number one supporters ‘F-ing retards.’

So now there’s going to be a meeting, there’s going to be a ‘Retard’ Summit at the White House, much like the Beer Summit between Obama and Gates and that cop in Cambridge. And then the Republican transportation secretary, Ray LaHood, he’s out there apologizing because he told people not to drive their recalled Toyotas. And he said, (paraphrasing) ‘No, no, no, I didn’t say don’t drive ’em. I said take it in and get it fixed.’ Here’s the story: ‘Don’t Drive Recalled Toyotas: US Transportation Secretary — LaHood called automaker ‘a little safety deaf’ during probe of problem. He is advising owners of recalled Toyotas to stop driving them and get ’em fixed. His warning came Wednesday in testimony before a House Appropriations Committee,’ but he’s since gone out to a different microphone and said, (paraphrasing) ‘No, no, no, no, I didn’t mean to say don’t drive ’em.’ Don’t forget Toyota is a competitor to Obama Motors. You can’t throw that out of the equation. Obama owns GM and Chrysler, and Toyota is a number one competitor. This is no different than the CEO of Ford going on TV or buying an ad and saying don’t drive a General Motors car.

Then Arne Duncan is apologizing for what he said about Hurricane Katrina and the New Orleans public schools. He said Hurricane Katrina was the best thing that ever happened to New Orleans public schools. It was the best thing that ever happened to education in the New Orleans school system. He said, ‘the school system has improved so rapidly,’ because we had to rebuild it from scratch. ‘It’s a wonderful thing to watch. The school system is strong again where it was relatively weak before.’ That can happen when half the population moves to Houston and you throw in even more cash. Duncan called on New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin to explain his remarks.

And then John Ensign, Senator from Nevada, Republican, ‘demanded an apology Tuesday from President Barack Obama for remarks he made disparaging Las Vegas. Ensign took to Twitter to ask for an apology for the remarks, the latest the president has made in several negative references to the city. ‘Obama slams Las Vegas again. I am calling on the President to apologize for his remark. Las Vegas is suffering through one of the highest unemployment rates in the country and we cannot afford for the President to bring us down any further.” Reid got a letter from the president but Ensign did not. That’s the news from our Las Vegas affiliate. No surprise there. This guy’s an ideologue, he’s a partisan. Says he’s not.

From the Wall Street Journal: ‘Emanuel Steps Up His Apology — Rahm Emanuel privately apologized last week to the Special Olympics after the Journal reported that he used the word ‘retarded’ in a derogatory manner. But advocates for people with disabilities didn’t think that apology, coming in a phone call to Special Olympics head Tim Shriver, was enough. Now, Emanuel is taking his contrition one step farther — hosting a delegation of advocates, including two people with mental disabilities, at the White House.’ They’re going to have a ‘Retard’ Summit just like they had the Beer Summit. But, folks, let’s not forget, Obama insulted the Special Olympics on The Tonight Show. I haven’t forgotten this. You know, here’s the thing. If you want to look at how this is broken down, Emanuel compares Democrat activists to retarded people, then apologizes to retarded people. Not to the Democrats.

Normally if you call somebody a retard, you apologize to them for calling them a retard. But he has apologized to the retarded people for daring to lump them with Democrats. It’s hilarious. So in an effort, ladies and gentlemen, to quell rising questions about the endless apologies necessary from Democrats, Obama is taking a short bus, little yellow bus full of ‘retards’ — ‘F-ing retards’ — to Las Vegas for the weekend. Senator Harry Reid expressed appreciation for the gesture and hoped that none of the ‘F-ing retards’ spoke with a Negro dialect. Arne Duncan, the secretary of education, will also be with the delegation in Las Vegas, bringing some undereducated children from Katrina-ravaged New Orleans. The goal is to teach them not to gamble with their college fund. I mean that’s what we have learned from what is happening with this administration. If this were Republicans making these statements, there wouldn’t be any forgiveness. There would be calls for resignation. There would be calls for public humiliation. There would be calls for fines.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: I referenced a moment ago that Rahm Emanuel with his ‘F-ing retard’ comment and Obama, you remember, had gone out on The Tonight Show and he’d made fun of Special Olympics bowlers. Well, here, let’s go back in time and remember how that happened.

(playing of Obama prepping for the Tonight Show spoof)

RUSH: He said it. ‘I bowl like I’m in the Special Olympics,’ President Obama.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: You know, folks, seriously — and you may not know this. This uproar over Rahm Emanuel calling Democrat activists ‘F-ing retards,’ demonstrates the power of Sarah Palin. It was Sarah Palin who, on her Facebook page this week, demanded that Obama fire Emanuel. But this comment is from last August! The ‘F-ing retard’ comment, he made it last August. Of course our State-Controlled Media buddies tell us that she’s ‘irrelevant’ and she’s ‘stupid’ and so forth and ‘she would be the instant death of the Republican Party.’ She’s the one that got all this brouhaha going.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: This is Gail, Barrington, Illinois, nice to have you on the Rush-Limbaugh program. Hi.

CALLER: Hi, Rush. Love you, listened to you for lots of year but I was distressed by your comments on Rahm Emanuel’s reference to retarded persons.

RUSH: Hm-hm.

CALLER: And I was distressed because you took the view as though his comments were an insult to the liberal Democrats, which I’m sure Sarah Palin wouldn’t have cared about anyway. The reason they were so offensive is because by using the term ‘retarded’ or ‘retards’ as a term of opprobrium or derision is insulting to all persons with mental disability.

RUSH: Right. But the point I was making was that Emanuel compares Democrats to retarded people and then apologized to the retarded people, which, in turn is not a complimentary thing to say about the Democrats, either. It’s sort of like if I would compare Obama to a rat and somebody said, ‘Don’t do that, you’re insulting rats.’ This is the same thing. Rahm Emanuel is comparing Democrats to retarded people. People say, ‘Don’t insult retarded people that way.’ That’s my take on it.

CALLER: I think he and a lot of people in our society use those terms as a way to denigrate those people. It is not polite. It can be hurtful. And I think that in a lot of your comments, it sounded to me as though you were repeating that.

RUSH: Well, I was. I was trying to focus attention on, once again, a loose lipped Democrat. These guys get away with insulting people left and right, they’re never called on it, and so if Rahm Emanuel can say it, I’ll just jump in to highlight the fact that another Democrat, this time the president’s chief of staff, is out there talking this way.

CALLER: Well, and I agree with you on that point. I just felt as though your comment, it seemed to me to underline the idea that the insult was to the Democrats, and it’s not, the insult is to the people with disabilities.

RUSH: No, no, no. I know the insult is to retarded people but those are not my words. Those are not my words. And, by the way, I gotta tell you something. When I grew up, this is to show you how society has changed, retarded is what they were called even by the schools. When I grew up, that’s what they were called. It’s only recently that that’s become a pejorative.

CALLER: Well, you know, and I don’t have a problem if someone is discussing an actual person with mental retardation in appropriate — I mean, I have a son with developmental disabilities. And if I were discussing it with, you know, someone at the school or we were discussing him in a clinical way and saying that he had mental retardation, it’s not the current term, but to me that would not be an insult. Yet if somebody referred to him as a retard —

RUSH: Like Rahm Emanuel did.

CALLER: Well, and the way Rahm Emanuel referred to him was in fact insulting. But I thought that your comments that the insult was to the Democrats, not to the people who were denigrated —

RUSH: Well, maybe I didn’t express it right, but the point is I just found it funny that Rahm Emanuel, the first thing he did was compared liberal activists to retarded people and then apologized to the retarded people for doing that as though it’s an insult to be called a Democrat. And —

CALLER: Well —

RUSH: As I told you, it’s just like if I were to call Obama a rat, ‘No, no, no, don’t insult rats that way.’ So here’s Emanuel, who has called Democrats retarded, and the retort is, ‘Don’t insult retarded people that way by calling them Democrats.’ That was the point I was trying to make with the irony in Rahm Emanuel’s comments. But you got to understand, look, this is not just Emanuel, it was Obama on The Tonight Show —

CALLER: Special Olympics comment.

RUSH: Special Olympics, when he bowls he looks like a Special Olympian or something, I mean the dirty little secret is all these pejoratives and all these politically incorrect terms, Democrats use them all the time in private conversation and they never get held to account for it. Rahm Emanuel made this comment back in August. Did you know that, Gail?

CALLER: I did, because I was listening to you earlier and you referred to it. Yep. No, I agree with you about the double standard, and I agree with you that it was offensive, but it is not clear from your comments that the reason why it is so offensive is because it is used as a pejorative —

RUSH: No, no, no —

CALLER: — denigrating as an opprobrium against a whole class —

RUSH: You’ve gotta cut me some slack. I’ve been here 20-plus years. You’ve got to know that I know that that’s a pejorative comment. It’s the reason I kept repeating it is to never let people forget that it was Rahm Emanuel who said it. It’s like Harry Reid and the Negro dialect, I kept talking about that, ‘Yeah, he’s light-skinned and he doesn’t speak with a Negro dialect except when he wants to.’ And sure enough the next day I caught grief as though I had originated the comment. That’s the way the press works. Anyway, Gail, I’m glad you called. I appreciate the opportunity to clarify any confusion that existed out there.

Let’s go to John in Crofton, Maryland. You’re next. Great to have you, sir. Hello.

CALLER: How you doing, Rush?

RUSH: Good.

CALLER: You always catch flak whether you deserve it or not. The way I took it was that Rahm Emanuel, who’s supposed to be, you know, such a masterful politician, he got caught in the act of being himself, and liberals, Democrats, to me they’re synonymous, they’re supposed to care for these protected classes of people like the disabled or whatever they call them, and the Special Olympics people.

RUSH: Exactly. They’re the ones have all the compassion —

CALLER: Yeah.

RUSH: — and the understanding and the tolerance —

CALLER: But see, this is showing the hypocrisy —

RUSH: Right.

CALLER: — and I think that’s what you were trying to point out.

RUSH: Right, exactly.

CALLER: Absolutely.

RUSH: And they’re fighting for these people while out there calling Democrats ‘F-ing retards’ and so forth. I mean these people are phony baloney, plastic banana, good-time rock ‘n’ rollers.

CALLER: Let me just say something about the president’s poll. It seems like he still has a high likability factor. People are not crazy about his policies. He keeps on coming down on that approval rating, and unfortunately it’s kind of making him out to be a Jekyll and Hyde president. And I think that’s too complimentary to what this guy is all about. He’s just a scoundrel, he’s got a final solution for this country, he hates this country, he hates most of the people in it, and I think that he’s tearing the place apart. I have a neighbor two houses away that works at the Goddard Space Center, he’s been there for years, I remember when Sputnik went up and we all of a sudden went into a cash program to catch up with the Soviets. I remember in 1969 when we landed on the moon, we’re supposed to have another moon shot in ten years, and the president is bringing down NASA, he’s taking away our triumphalism because he hates the greatness of this country, and of course there are a lot of contractors that do work for NASA, he’s canceling another fighter, first the F-22, now the F-35 is going to get canceled and little by little he’s tearing the private part of the economy apart. I see the economy of this country is two glasses, one is public, in other words, the government jobs, and that’s filled with water, and the private sector is half filled or less than half filled, and he’s continuing to pour water or more government jobs in the glass that’s already overflowing and he won’t put any water in the glass that needs it. He’s doing all this on purpose, and he told Diane Sawyer that if he’s only in for one term he’d rather do that than be mediocre for two terms because his final solution —

RUSH: Right.

CALLER: — is to destroy the country.

RUSH: Now, you’ve got to be sure and watch the second bomb that I throw tomorrow on Fox &amp; Friends because I address that very comment that he made about he’d rather be a great one-term president than a lousy two-term president. Thanks for the call out there, John.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: It looks like Eric Holder is trying to make some amends for Rahm Emanuel and his comments on the retarded. ‘The Justice Department is now seeking…’ I kid you not. I’m going to read this in a second. They’re seeking to hire lawyers with ‘mental retardation’ and ‘mental illness’ as lawyers. Maybe this is why they decided not to prosecute the New Black Panthers in Philadelphia. ‘The Civil Rights Division…’ This is from Justice.gov, the website: ‘The Civil Rights Division encourages qualified applicants with targeted disabilities to apply. Targeted disabilities are deafness, blindness, missing extremities, partial or complete paralysis, convulsive disorder, mental retardation, mental illness, severe distortion of limbs and/or spine. Applicants who meet the qualification requirements and are able to perform the essential functions of the position with or without reasonable accommodation are encouraged to identify targeted disabilities in response to the questions in the Avue application system seeking that information.’

It’s right there, folks. I’m not making it up. Holder’s Justice Department is actually seeking lawyers with ‘mental retardation, mental illness, severe distortion of limbs and/or spine.’ If you meet the Justice Department qualification requirements, even though you might have ‘mental retardation, mental illness’ — and even though you’re mentally retarded, mentally ill, can perform essential functions of the lawyer position — then you are urged to apply. Yeah. In other words, what Eric Holder is saying is, ‘Would you fit in with everybody else in our Department of Justice? ‘Cause that’s who’s here now. Would you fit in with us?’